This forum has been built using JForum. Would you recommend using JForum?

I need to create a forum. I have been researching the available packages. As far as I have learned, these are my prefered options:

1- JForum, because I’m a java developer and it would be easier to implement it and modify it, and maybe even integrate it with the rest of the site. It seems that it is the best java forum solution, among the few ones made in java that seem to be good.
2- vBulletin, because it is one of the two most-used packages, even though it costs US$200. It seems that is it one of the two most powerfull solutions. But it has been written in PHP, so I would suffer if I want to modify it.
3- phpBB, because it is the other most-used solution, and it is free and open-sourced. But this one has been also written in PHP, so it will be a pain to modify it.

I see that you used Jforum here in CodeRanch. Would you recommend it? I have started to check it (JForum) and there are some things that I’m worried about:

- This one is incredible: In Jforums’s forum (http://jforum.net/forums/list.page) I can’t register and post a question. It seems that since September 2009 nobody has been able to post anything else. Is this forum abandoned? What kind of support can I expect then?
- The documentation is rather poor, at least according to my expectations.

Thanks a lot for your response. I read the article, most part of it to be exact.
Considering that you are all java guys (as I am) so you obviously prefered a java solution, I guess you chose the best one among the few ones available (JForum, javaBB, MVNforum and Yazd). I guess JForum was/is the best. But what about support? Why is JForum's forum frozen in time? What is weird, specially considering that the forum I'm talking about belongs to an organizations whose supported product is... a forum!

It is weird. I don't know if the project is being continued or not. They are supposed to be creating vr3. But wether they are actively doing it or not, why did they freeze their forum? They have hidden the registration process, so nobody can register and post anything. Is that logical? What do they gain doing that? It doesn't make sense, even if they stopped mantaining their creation.
I can still manage myself to deal with challenges with JForum, it wouldn't be the first time I solve something without help, but it would be nice to know that there is some level of support out there.

Now, even if they are not improving JForum, is there any better forum solution developed in java? According to what I read, javaBB is not bad, but it is not as good as JForum. Have you evaluated javaBB? There are also a few other options, but it seems that they are not good. Did you evaluate other packages? I guess you did, and I would like to know what you think about them.

Anyway, I really wouldn't like to be forced to learn PHP in order to be able to make changes to phpBB. It would take me far more time to make easy changes to phpBB, than to do harder changes to any solution based on java.

Jeanne Boyarsky wrote:Brian,
When we converted to JForum, it was still under active development at jforum.net. I don't know why it isn't anymore, but I'm guessing the official project is abandoned.

While we are the largest install of JForum, there are others. For example, I know JavaBlackBelt is using it.

As far as support, we are Java developers. We can support our install ourself. We could have written it ourself, but that it time consuming.

I think it depends on whether you want to be able to tweak without learning PHP.

We did look at other packages, but it was over two years ago. Things change so I don't know that the results of our research are still valid.

It says they have been working on v3 for a long time. At the beginning that was activity in the forum discussing it. I think things have stopped based on the website.

Brian Braun Mitman
Greenhorn

Joined: May 26, 2010
Posts: 14

posted May 26, 2010 20:36:11

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Do you remember which other packages were you considering? and what did you think about them? Even if it was one year ago, I would like to know that. My impression is that even one year ago, JForum was by far the best one.

Jeanne Boyarsky wrote:We did look at other packages, but it was over two years ago. Things change so I don't know that the results of our research are still valid.

It says they have been working on v3 for a long time. At the beginning that was activity in the forum discussing it. I think things have stopped based on the website.

The ones that were looked at -to the point of actually installing and playing around with them- were mvnForum and Jive, and both were found wanting for our particular purposes. I can't be more specific since that was before my time as a moderator here (which also means that both may have evolved significantly since then - and it looks as if at least Jive has indeed changed much). JavaBB was still pre-1.0 back then; maybe it's a contender now.

Brian Braun Mitman
Greenhorn

Joined: May 26, 2010
Posts: 14

posted May 27, 2010 08:14:49

0

Hi Ulf,

Jive seems to be too expensive, and not really just a forum but something more complex that I dont need.
I have almost decided to use JForum. Maybe it is not perfect, but as far as I have seen, its the best (among the ones made in Java). And the fact that it worked for JavaRanch makes me think it will work for me. And regarding support, I guess I can contact you guys!

Ulf Dittmer wrote:The ones that were looked at -to the point of actually installing and playing around with them- were mvnForum and Jive, and both were found wanting for our particular purposes. I can't be more specific since that was before my time as a moderator here (which also means that both may have evolved significantly since then - and it looks as if at least Jive has indeed changed much). JavaBB was still pre-1.0 back then; maybe it's a contender now.

Brian Braun Mitman wrote: And regarding support, I guess I can contact you guys!

Indeed, the official forums might be dead, but we're more than happy to help out right here.

Regarding other things we looked at: I know a little bit more about the Jive and Mvnforum efforts. Honestly, I think either one of them would have been OK, but neither effort gathered the critical mass of staff needed to see them to completion. Both products had some problems and JForum was superior in those respects: Jive was, at the time, virtually 100% implemented as scriptlet-heavy JSPs, which we didn't like as an architecture. mvnforum also had scriptlet-heavy JSPs, plus a very dense and confusing data access layer that we weren't too excited about mucking with. JForum has no scriptlets at all (since it uses velocity instead of JSPs!) and the data layer is really quite elegant IMO.

Thanks for your offer to help me, thanks a lot!!
Jive: went to their website, and didn't even see the word "forum". It seems that they sell a very expensive software that helps communicate with clients, and I guess that included a forum capability. It is certainly not what I im looking for.
Reagarding the other options, I definitely didnt spend the time you did learning about them. You definitely did a very deep evaluation!
By the way, this site was incredibly useful for my research: http://www.forum-software.org

Ernest Friedman-Hill wrote:

Brian Braun Mitman wrote: And regarding support, I guess I can contact you guys!

Indeed, the official forums might be dead, but we're more than happy to help out right here.

Regarding other things we looked at: I know a little bit more about the Jive and Mvnforum efforts. Honestly, I think either one of them would have been OK, but neither effort gathered the critical mass of staff needed to see them to completion. Both products had some problems and JForum was superior in those respects: Jive was, at the time, virtually 100% implemented as scriptlet-heavy JSPs, which we didn't like as an architecture. mvnforum also had scriptlet-heavy JSPs, plus a very dense and confusing data access layer that we weren't too excited about mucking with. JForum has no scriptlets at all (since it uses velocity instead of JSPs!) and the data layer is really quite elegant IMO.